Baker&#39;s oven



Patented Oct. 27, l92 5.

UNITED ys'irrlas JOHN n. oANrvooar, or BEACON, NEW Yoan.

BAxEn's ovEN.

Application led February 9, 1921. Serial No. 443,591;

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN M.' GANTvooRT, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Beacon, in the county of Dutchess and State of New York, have 1nvented certain new and useful Improvements in Bakers Ovens, of which the following is a specification.-

My inventionv relates to bakers ovens, and particularly to. traveling ovens, the object of my invention being to provide a bakers installation comprising a battery of relatively small independent traveling oven units with a common feed and discharge mechanism therefor.

Traveling ovens are commonly of very large capacity with relatively vslow progress of the shelf-supporting cha-ins through the oven. Loading of the shelves at oneend 'of the oven, and their discharge of the baked vgoods at the other end of the: oven,

are practically continuous operations, in as much as lthe time consumed in asingle traverse of the 'baking chamber is'suilicientl to complete the baking operation. While such an installation is etlicient when ingood working condition, it entails the serious draw-back that upon a break-down of any portion of the installation the entire oven is thrown out of operation and the output of the Aplant correspondingly reduced. Moreover, the construction of such a traveling oven involves a very large investment.

The underlying thought of the present invention consists in substituting for a single largefoven'V installation of this type, a battery of relatively small oven units, each independent of the other, and capable of independent operation, the battery as a whole, however, affording, 'when the unit group is sutliciently extended, a capacity equal to that of the usual large traveling oven. Associatedwith the oven battery are feed and-dischargedevices common to all'of the 'oven unitsof the group. The battery preferably comprises afunit in excess of the number required under normal operating conditions, so that in the event of break-down of any one of the operatingg units, the excess unit may be at once placed in service during-repairs Vwithout interrupting or diminishing the output of the plant. lVhether or not an excess unit is included in the battery, obviously, failure of one unit does not completely cripple the plant.

Again, a unit vsystem of this type has the great advantage over single large ovens, that it permits different oven conditions in the several oven units for several types of baked goods-an advantage of marked vvalue to' the small baker, who produces goods of different character. In addition to this ilexibility of operation, which permits more or less of the units to be utilized with va ing demand, a new unit may be readily ded to the installation, yat relatively small expense, to increase the'ca acityof the p1ant,

while the same feed an discharge devlces may be used with 11o-other expense than 7 the insertion of an added length in the conveyor belts.

It may be installation of this -type is well adapted ,to a change-over from existing peel-oven installations linto multi-unit traveling oven installations, the latter possessing greater output capacity for a given floor area occupied thereby, as well as.greater economy and convenience ofoperation. Y Y Y It will be obviousfrom the foregoing that the invention resides in a broad undeflying conception rather than in any particular detail of construction. With this understanding the invention has been presented more or less diagrammatically in the accompanying drawings in which- Fig. 1 is a vertical section through an ovenl unit to which my invention is applied inone form; and 1 Fig. 2 is a front elevation of a battery of such oven units.

While the number of oven units may be K-varied to meet the output capacity required lof a plant, I have here illustrated a, battery of four units,3, 4,"5 and 6, arranged side by side in alignment, each having a baking chamber 7 in which travel the chains 8 upon'which the baking shelves 9 are supported. The manner of heating the oven units may bevaried, and I have indicated further pointed out that `a unit only by way of example, a group of Perkins tubes 10 for each unitvextending into a heatin chamber 11 belowl the baking chamber cess is had from the rear of the unit through the lire door 13. The air heated by the tubes 10 rises from the chamber 11, through. the passage -14` to the inlet `15 at the top of the oven chamber, controlled by a damper 16, and passes through the oven chamber in contact with the baking'goods,

from the fire box 12, to which aceventually returning to the chamber 11, through the down-comer passage 17, and port 18. Each chain travels around sprockets 19 and 20, one of which, viz, 20, is mounted on a shaft 2l extending the length of the battery of oven units and driven by a gear 22 at one vend of the battery.

At the front of each oven unit I provide a metallic bay 23, projecting beyond the front wall 24, and provided with arcuate sliding 'doors 25 and 26, which normally close the feed and discharge openings 27 and 28 to the baking chamber. 'Ilie front sprocket 19 is so located that the chains brinov the baking shelves 9 into a position relatively close to the inner face'of the bay to facilitate the loading and unloading operations. A guide platform 29 may be arranged on the inner face of the bay at the lower margin of the feed opening 27 to supgort the goods as they pass to the shelves uring the loading operation. Similarly, a tipping llug 30 may be provided to temporarily halt the shelves and tipv them to discharge position as they reach the discharge port 28 during the discharging op-, eration. v

Extending transversely in front of the battery of oven units are two fixed supports 31 and 32, one adjacent the lower margin of the feed openings 27, and the other adjacent the lower margin of the discharge openings 28. Passing over these supports are endless t conveyors 33 and 34 which serve the oven battery. The conveyor 33 brings to loading position, before each oven of the battery, the goods 35 to be baked, while the conveyor 34 receives andv removes the baked goods 36. The conveyor 33 preferably extends from the oven battery to a oint at which it may be conveniently loadewith the goods read to enter the ovens, for example, to the proo ing room. The discharge conveyor 34 ex- 7 tends from the oven battery to a Vsuitable cooling room, where the baked goods are discharged and permitted to cool under proper conditions. i

AAny suitable means may be provided for advancing the feed belt 33 intermittently, or for halting its travel momentarily during the transfer of the goods from the conveyor to the shelves within one of the oven units. During the loading operation, the chains 8 for the shelves may also be similarly halted intermittently to bring the successive shelves 9 to stationary position adjacent the guide 29, so that the goods 35 may be transferred by'any suitable means, from the belt 33 to the shelf. The travel of the chains 8 may be so slow that an actual halt of the shelf in loading position'is not necessary. When a halt is desired, however, it may be obtained by driving the chains 8 for each of the ovens independently, for example, by a switchcontrolled electric motor instead of from the able clutch device may be provided in the connection between the drive shaft and the sprocket 20-for instance, a one-way` drive connection-Which permits the sha-ft 21 to continue its rotation, while the chains 8 are halted. Inasmuch as such mechanisms are of'common construction, they have not been illustrated. The detent 30 for tilting the shelves for discharge is pivoted and may be moved out of detaining position during the baking operation, so that the shelves travel freely past it. Y

In an installation of the present type, the

loading and unloading operations may take place practically simultaneously in one unit,

while in the remaining units of the batterybaking operations are in progress, or one unit may be loaded while another unit is discharged. Itis thus possible for a single operative to tend a relatively large number of units," in which the baking operations take Iplace in sequence. Moreover, theginstallation permits goods of different character to be baked in the different units, while at the same time making use of the common feed and discharge conveyors 33 and 34. Similarly, the advantages of a common feed and discharge arran ement are available for goods requiring ifferent baking conditions; and the temperature and moisture conditions in the several" units maybe varied to meet these different requirements. Again, the shelves for the several units may be of different character; for instance, the shelves of one unit may be suitable for baking pan bread, while the shelves of an adjacent oven are suitable for the baking of hearth bread; while the shelves and eneral conditions in another oven may be a apted to the baking of cakes and pastry. It is thus obvious that the installation affords a flexibility of operation and a variation of baking conditions in the several ovens suitable for various types of baked goods, while for all of the ovens the feed and discharge devices are equally serviceable.

While I have indicated some of the advantages and utilities of construction, as Well as suitable embodiment of the invention, various modications will occur to those skilled in the art whichVV embody the underlying thoughts of what I claim as my invention.

I .claim- 1. In a bakers'installatio'n, a battery of juxtaposed ovens having substantially Luang-ne aligned bays projecting from one endof the ovens, traveling supports within the ovens, baking shelves-carried thereby and entering said bays during portion of their travel, and' entry and discharge openin s in s aid bays in combmation with trave ing conveyors common to said battery of ovens and arranged 1espectively-adjacent the entry and -dischargeopenings 1n the bays, for -thepurpose specified.

3. In a bakers oven, a baking chamber having a bay at one end, chains arranged in transversely theretov and adapted to present goods to be baked at said door for the transfer therethrough transversely to the direction of. travel of said conveyor .to a baking 20 'smf wit-hin the bay.l

In testimony whereof I -have, signed my l name to this Specification,

JOHN M. Gain'rv ooRnl l' 

